English version

Res derelicta in the Roman law meant the state of abandonment of goods and things of which you may regain possession by occupatio. Here it is a metaphor for considering the fringe areas, and for thinking about that which is left over from all rational territorial planning and production processes. Thus, it is a metaphor aiming to show how our society is characterised by its incredible ability to producing scraps, relics, waste, making abandonment into a widespread and ubiquitous condition.

Environment/dump, consumption/waste, use/disuse: among res derelictae you can find not just the negative aspect of our society, but also other possibilities.Art is a research that actually seizes this potentiality, these possible further meanings and knows how to develop them into new ways of participation and communication. Thus abandonment and the emblematic meet in spaces and practices that are experimental and ductile, as well as paradigmatic.An oil barrel rolls through the streets of New York and Rome, reflecting the faint and unsteady image of the city; a desert island in the Sporades archipelago becomes the setting for the re-enactment of possible narrations; a philosopher thinks back to the places and stages of his education, whilst short descriptions reveal unusual urban views; an ancient Italian park is emblematically caught in its total state of neglect.Armando Lulaj, the Built Event team (coordinated by Aristide Antonas and Filippos Oreopoulos), Vincenzo Casali and Harald Gsaller present a journey through places and things, opening up new points of view on the role of art, the processes of individual and collective transformation and on the condition of the spaces we live in.

Vincenzo Casali (1959 – Pavia) is an architect and artist. He graduated as architect in Venice and studied at the AA in London and at the ILAUD in Urbino. He has been teaching at the IUAV in Venice, at the ETH Zurich, at the New York University and at the Columbia University, New York. Since 2000 he is a consultant for UNESCO.Harald Gsaller (1960 Lienz – Tirolo Orientale). Lives and works in Vienna. He studied chemistry and physics at the University Johannes Kepler in Linz. His artistic research deals with connections between science, daily life and art through the use of photography, texts and graphics. He was recently awarded with the Preis des Landes Oberösterreich at the 30th national graphics competition and with the Auslandsstipendium Paliano of the Landesregierung Oberösterreich. He took part in many group and solo shows.Armando Lulaj (1980 – Tirana) lives and works in Bologna, Italy. He recently took part in the 52nd Venice Biennial of Visual Arts, in the 4th Gothenburg Biennial and in the 3rd Prague Biennial and to group shows at Artra Gallery - Milan, Fondazione Sandretto - Turin and Apexart - New York. He also exhibited in solo shows at Te Tuhi Center for the Arts – New Zeeland, Artra Gallery - Milan, Insurgent Space – Tirana.

Built_Event is the name of a series of projects carried out by a non stable team of architects, artists, philosophers and scientists coordinated by Aristide Antonas and Filippos Oreopoulos. It counts four different projects (among which Island_BuiltEvent1 that took place in 2005 in Youra), each of ones held in a specific place as a workshop. The collection of the documentation of every participant constitutes an archive that is the work itself and that is conceived as an unstable description of each place. The archive of Island_BuiltEvent1 has been published as an handmade book.Behind my back Vitra Headquarters by F.O. Gehry is a project by Vincenzo Casali that will be presented also in Campo Sant’Agnese (Dorsoduro – Venice) on Thursday, September 12th at 18.30.It is a collaboration with the Vitra Design Foundation and it is part of a wider project by Galleria Contemporaneo, the Vitra Design Foundation, the ISR-Spazio Culturale Svizzero in Venice and the Venice Academy of Fine Arts: an exhibition, Building Vitra – New Projects (September 12 – 30, 2008 at Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro Venice), and a conference with Jacques Herzog - Herzog & De Meuron (September 12th - 11.00am at Aula Magna, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Ex Ospedale degli Incurabili, Dorsoduro - Venice)